Graeme Souness thought it inevitable that Alan Shearer would score the 300th league goal of his career at the ground where his name and reputation were forged, but, for the outcome of a match heavily influenced by Newcastle playing with 10 men for 86 minutes, the number two was the more relevant goal statistic. Shearer finished with that tally but so, too, did Blackburn midfielder David Dunn and defender Martin Taylor in an erratic affair.

The pre-match talk, naturally enough, had all centred upon Shearer and his quest for a landmark goal, but it took all of four minutes for the Newcastle captain to find himself overshadowed by events on the field.

Newcastle's goalkeeper Shay Given began what was to become a galling first half when he dropped a routine cross from Lucas Neill, the ball falling for the predatory Yorke whose goal-bound shot was kept out by the hand of Nikos Dabizas.

The red card that ensued allowed Dabizas to avoid having to watch the result of his handiwork as Rovers' England international Dunn convincingly beat Given from the penalty spot.

Newcastle's reduced ranks were still re-organising when Blackburn doubled the lead four minutes later. Former Newcastle winger Keith Gillespie possessed the poise to flick the ball to Dunn as he gathered it on the edge of the area from a goalmouth mêlée and the midfielder's low, driven shot found a way through the body of the diving Given.

Gifted a two-goal start at home, and playing against 10 men, there was little wonder that Blackburn began to stroke the ball around with an authority and confidence of which Souness has always insisted they are capable.

The Blackburn manager had been right in his pre-match prediction that destiny dictated Shearer would hit number 300 on his old stomping ground. On a rare Newcastle foray, Neill pushed Shearer as the pair challenged for a cross and there was to be but one taker, and one outcome, from the resulting penalty. The triplecentury came in the 36th minute with a ferocious shot that might have done Friedel serious damage had he chosen the right way to dive.

Shearer had to endure a wait of some 13 minutes before goal number 301, a most dramatic Newcastle equaliser. Blackburn dealt badly with a Rovers free-kick and conceded a corner from which Robert picked out the head of the unmarked Shearer who beat Friedel comfortably from eight yards.

When, a minute later, Shearer had the ball in the net for a hat-trick 'goal' swiftly ruled out for offside, it appeared this would truly be his day, but in a game becoming increasingly open, Blackburn soon restored their lead.

A corner in the 55th minute resulted in Dunn's shot, from the edge of the area, deflecting unpredictably off the back of a black and white shirt, and looping into the path of defender Martin Taylor who side-footed the ball in from six yards.

The outcome looked beyond even Shearer's intervention in the 64th minute when Given was again at fault, failing to hold Gillespie's header and seeing the ball ricochet off Yorke and Andy Griffin on its way in for a fourth home goal.

The fifth Rovers goal was academic, although it compounded Given's misery as he failed to hold a powerful header placed from the six-yard line by Taylor after David Thompson's corner.